Proof By David Auburn - Duet Acting - Hal's Lines

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HAL. Celebrating?

CATHERINE. No. I just like champagne. Do you want some?

HAL. Sure.

CATHERINE. I'm done. You can take the rest with you.

HAL. Oh. No thanks. I'm driving. When should I come back?

CATHERINE. Come back?

HAL. Yeah. I'm nowhere near finished. Maybe tomorrow?

CATHERINE. We have a funeral tomorrow.

HAL. God, you're right, I'm sorry. I was going to attend if that's all right.

CATHERINE. Yes.

HAL. What about Sunday? Will you be around?

CATHERINE. You've had three days.

HAL. I'd love to get in some more time up there.

CATHERINE. How much longer do you need?

HAL. Another week. At least.

CATHERINE. A week?

HAL. I know you don't need anybody in your hair right now. Look, I spent the last couple days getting everything sorted out. It's mostly notebooks. I don't have to work here. I could take some stuff home, read it, bring it back.

CATHERINE. No.

HAL. I'll be careful.

HAL. What about Sunday? Will you be around?

LEVI: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” - Warren Buffett

ELI: “You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough.” - Frank Crane

LEVI: The heart is a fickle and fragile thing, able to withstand only so much.

ELI: And unlike math, when it comes to matters of the heart, there’s no such thing as a “calculated risk”.

LEVI: In the wake of her father’s death, Catherine struggles to cope with his absence and her newfound ‘freedom’.

ELI: When Hal, a student of her father’s, asks to look through her father’s writings, she’s disturbed by the painful reminder he brings.

LEVI: There’s no perfect formula for dealing with grief,

ELI: but there are variables that make the process smoother.

LEVI: Like, the company of another. It’s not easy to let others in on our darkest moments, but it’s easier to face the unknown knowing that you have someone to watch your back.

ELI: Together, we can find the answers to life and overcome our struggles.

LEVI: However, if you still don’t believe us, we can show you the

LEVI: However, if you still don’t believe us, we can show you the

BOTH: “Proof” by David Auburn.

ELI: Because even when we are

BOTH: wounded,

BOTH: wounded,

LEVI: if vulnerability is met with compassion and understanding,

ELI: our hearts can begin to heal, and love

BOTH: can flourish again.

CATHERINE. My father wouldn't want anything moved and I don't want anything to leave this house.

HAL. Then I should work here. I'll stay out of the way.

CATHERINE. There's nothing up there. It's garbage.

HAL. There are a hundred and three notebooks.

CATHERINE. He was a graphomaniac, Harold. Do you know what that is?

HAL. Call me Hal…Well, I'm gonna be late ... Some friends of mine are in this band. They're playing at a bar up on Diversey. They're all in the math department. They're really good. 

CATHERINE. Long drive to see some nerds in a band.

HAL. God I hate when people say that. It is not that long a drive.

CATHERINE. So they are nerds.

HAL. Oh they're raging geeks. But they're geeks who, you know, can dress themselves. They play sports, they play in a band, they get laid surprisingly often, so in that sense they sort of make you question the whole set of terms. Geek, nerd, dweeb,, paste-eater.

CATHERINE. You're in this band, aren't you?

HAL. Okay, yes. I play drums. You want to come? I never sing, l swear to God

CATHERINE. No thanks.

HAL. All right. Look, Catherine, I don't have time to do this but I'm going to. If you'll let me. I loved your dad. I don't believe a mind like his can just shut down. He had a lucid year, a whole year four years ago. Monday: What do you say?

CATHERINE. It wasn't a year. It was more like nine months.

HAL. A school year. I was stalled on my Ph.D. I was this close to quitting. I met with your dad and he put me on the right track with my research. I owe him.

CATHERINE. Sorry.

HAL. Look. You're twenty-five, right?

CATHERINE. How old are you?

HAL. I'm twenty-eight. When your dad was younger than both of us he made major contributions to three fields: game theory, algebraic geometry, and nonlinear operator theory. Most of us never get our heads around one. Okay?

CATHERINE. Don't lecture me.

HAL. I'm not. I'm telling you if I came up with one-tenth of the things your dad produced I could write my own ticket to any math department in the country. 

CATHERINE. Give me your backpack.

HAL. Why?

CATHERINE. I want to look inside it.

HAL. What?

CATHERINE. Open it and give it to me.

HAL. Oh come on.

CATHERINE. You're not taking anything out of this house.

HAL. I wouldn't do that.

CATHERINE. You're hoping to find something upstairs that you can publish. Then you can write your own ticket.

HAL. What? No! It would be under your dad's name. It would be for your dad.

CATHERINE. I don't believe you. You have a notebook in that backpack. 

HAL. What are you talking about?

CATHERINE. Give it to me.

HAL. You're being a little bit paranoid.

CATHERINE. PARANOID? Screw you, Hal. I KNOW you have one of my notebooks.

HAL. I think you should calm down and think about what you're--

CATHERINE. I'm saying you're lying to me and stealing my family's property.

HAL. And I think that sounds paranoid

CATHERINE. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean there isn't something in that backpack.

HAL. You just said yourself there's nothing up there. Didn't you?

CATHERINE. I - 

HAL. Didn't you say that?

CATHERINE. Yes.

HAL. So what would I take? Right?

CATHERINE. You're right.

HAL. Thank you.

CATHERINE. So you don't need to come back.

HAL. Please. Someone should know for sure whether — 

CATHERINE. I LIVED WITH HIM. I spent my life with him. I fed him. Talked to him. Tried to listen when he talked. Talked to people who weren't there...Watched him shuffling around like a ghost. My own father.

HAL. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have ...

CATHERINE. After my mother died it was just me here. He used to read all day. He kept demanding more and more books. I took them out of the library by the carload. We had hundreds upstairs. Then I realized he wasn't reading: He believed aliens were sending him messages through the dewey decimal numbers on the library books. He was trying to work out the code.

HAL. What kind of messages?

CATHERINE. Beautiful mathematics. Answers to everything. The most elegant proofs. Plus fashion tips, knock-knock jokes — I mean it was NUTS, okay?

HAL. He was ill. It was a tragedy.

CATHERINE. Later the writing phase: scribbling, nineteen, twenty hours a day ... I ordered him a case of notebooks and he used every one. I dropped out of school... I'm glad he's dead.

HAL. I understand why you'd feel that way.

CATHERINE. Screw you.

HAL. You're right. I can't imagine dealing with that. I know you-

CATHERINE. You don't know me. I want to be alone. I don't want him around.

HAL. Him? I don't - 

CATHERINE. You. I don't want you here.

HAL. Why?

CATHERINE. He's dead.

HAL. But I'm not —

CATHERINE. HE's dead; I don't need any protégés around.

HAL. Someone's gonna read those notebooks.

CATHERINE. I'll do it.

HAL. No, you -

CATHERINE. He's my father, I'll do it.

HAL. You can't.

CATHERINE. Why not?

HAL. You don't have the math. You wouldn't know the good stuff from the junk.

CATHERINE. It's all junk.

HAL. If it's not we can't afford to miss any through carelessness.

CATHERINE. I know mathematics.

HAL. Cathy ...

CATHERINE. WHAT?

HAL. I know your dad taught you some basic stuff, but come on.

CATHERINE. You don't think I could do it.

HAL. I'm sorry: I know that you couldn't…Hey! Oh come on. Give me a break. 

CATHERINE. You can come tomorrow.

HAL. The University health service is, uh, very good. My Mom died a couple years ago and I was pretty broken up. I went over and talked to this doctor. I saw her for a couple months and it really helped.

CATHERINE. Good night.

HAL. Good night.

CATHERINE. Wait, your coat.

HAL. No, you don't have to —

CATHERINE. I'm PARANOID?

HAL. Wait. Just hold on.

CATHERINE. Get out!

HAL. Can I please just —

CATHERINE. Get the hell out of my house.

HAL. Listen to me for a minute.

CATHERINE. You stole this!

HAL. Let me explain!

CATHERINE. You stole it from ME, you stole it from my FATHER --

HAL. I want to show you something, will you calm down?

CATHERINE. Give it back.

HAL. Just wait a minute.

CATHERINE. I'm calling the police. 

HAL. Don't. Look, I borrowed the book, all right? I'm sorry, I just picked it up before I came downstairs and thought I'd— 

CATHERINE. Hello?

HAL. I did it for a reason.

CATHERINE. Hello, Police? I - Yes, I'd like to report a robbery in progress.

HAL. I noticed something - something your father wrote. All right? Not math, something he wrote. Here, let me show you.

CATHERINE. A ROBBERY.

HAL. Will you put the damn phone down and listen to me?

CATHERINE. Yes, I'm at 5724 South —

HAL. It's about you. See? YOU. It was written about you. "A good day. Some very good news from Catherine.” The handwriting is steady. It must have been during his remission. There's more. "Machinery not working yet but I am patient.” "The machinery" is what he called his mind, his ability to do mathematics.

CATHERINE. I know

HAL. "I know I'll get there. Talking with students helps. So does being outside, eating meals in restaurants, riding buses, all the activities of 'normal' life. Most of all Cathy. The years she has lost caring for me. I almost wrote 'wasted.' Yet her refusal to let me be institutionalized — her keeping me at home, caring for me herself has certainly saved my life. I can never repay her. Today is her birthday: She is twenty-one. I'm taking her to dinner." Dated September fourth. That's tomorrow.

CATHERINE. It's today.

HAL. You're right. I thought you might want to see it. I shouldn't have tried to sneak it out. Tomorrow I was going to — it sounds stupid now. I was going to wrap it. Happy birthday.